Philadelphia police are searching for five to six men they believe robbed and brutally beat a transgender woman early Tuesday morning before fatally shooting her in the back.
Capt. James Clark told WPVI that footage shows Keisha Jenkins, 22, getting out of a car around 2:30 a.m. Police say they received a call shortly after saying that a robbery and possible shooting was taking place. When police arrived, they found a badly beaten Jenkins, who had been shot twice. She was transported to the hospital but pronounced dead shortly after her arrival, the news station reports.
Police do not believe that Jenkins knew her attackers and are trying to determine if the attack was a hate crime. Clark told the news station that the case is under investigation, but noted that police have some immediate questions they would like answered, such as why Jenkins, who lives on the south side of the city, was in the Logan neighborhood and who was driving the car that dropped her off.
“It’s time to do more than just solve each homicide as they happen. It’s time to do more than just arrest these horrific people who commit these violent crimes,” Nellie Fitzpatrick, Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter’s liaison to the LGBT community, told the news station. “It’s time to do the work beforehand. To look left and look right and know we have to … stand up with and stand up for our transgender and gender-nonconforming individuals.”
Police are reportedly searching for additional video footage that may shed light on exactly what led to Jenkins’ death.
Read more at WPVI.